Laptop Deals with Low Budget under NZD$1500

Ldealhunterpro on 01/05/2024 - 02:40

Hi everyone, I'm in the market for a business laptop that can handle my music production needs, but my budget is limited to $1500 or it can be more. I'm looking for a laptop that has a fast processor, at least 8GB of RAM, and a solid-state drive with at least 256GB of storage. I'll be running music software like Ableton Live, so the laptop should be able to handle multiple tracks and effects processing without slowing down.

In addition to these requirements, I'd also like the laptop to have a good screen with accurate color reproduction for working on graphic design projects. Portability is also a factor, as I'll be carrying it around to different studios and venues.

Can anyone recommend any models or brands that would fit these specifications and budget? I've been considering options like the Dell XPS 13 or Lenovo ThinkPad E14, but I'm open to other suggestions as well. I'm also curious about any deals or discounts that may be available for buying a laptop in this price range.

Thanks in advance for your help and advice!

General Discussion

Comments

  • Grandma on 01/05/2024 - 12:07

    Look into m1 macbook air.

    Used around $1k. New they're consistently aorund $1500. Very good display; it's probably worth looking into youtube vids about hwo software you want to run runs, but they're crazy good computers for $1.5k. ANd I know it's marketing speak, but the 8gb of ram performs a lot better than an 8gb windows computer

    • kfr23 on 02/05/2024 - 11:36
      +2

      It's still marketing, it performs better because more stuff gets swapped onto the SSD. 8GB of RAM on macOS is not magically more than 8GB on a Windows based laptop, regardless of what Apple might say.

      • Grandma on 04/05/2024 - 14:59
        +2

        Well, of course

        But macos does things like memory compression and the user experience of 8gb on an apple silicon computer is genuinely better than a pc with more.. & the memory is on package, so it is different than socketed ddr4 in.. .that way… it does help that they use stupid fast SSDs for paging though.

        By for comparison, my desktop is a 32gb with a 3900x and a 3080 and a decent ssd. The macbook is slightly faster day to day, but does have a lower ceiling… with no fan, no heat, no noise.

        There's also stuff to be said for NPU and GPU on these machines.

        Also external displays are borderline broken, so there's that.

        Ill talk the pants off of m1 and m2 and i guess the m3 macs, they're freaky good computers. But memory and ssd changes are overpriced so just buy used and everyone wins

    • KeepYourPantsOn on 04/05/2024 - 11:22

      8gb of ram in 2024 lmao

      • Grandma on 04/05/2024 - 14:52

        Of course. Im running around with an 8gb m2 and I hit the ceiling reasonably often.

        That said, it blows the pants off of my 32gb/i5 probook that work have me

        • KeepYourPantsOn on 04/05/2024 - 15:20
          +1

          Press X for doubt

          • Grandma on 04/05/2024 - 15:47
            -3

            @KeepYourPantsOn: If the work laptop didnt fire up it's fan at any sniff of a decent bit of multitasking i'd probably have a different opinion.

            That's the thing with these apple arm chips, they're just so stupidly performant per watt compared to x86. So far off anything x86 that I don't think there's a windows pc upgrade that would be worthwhile at the moment.

            At $1500 or so retail, there just aren't computers that are as fast, have as nice of a display, as nice of a trackpad as the m1 macbook airs. They're still, after 4 years stupid good.

            • mdsl32 on 05/05/2024 - 17:09

              @Grandma: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZuv4TIjk-I
              Watch your Storage die from excessive swap usage.

              • Grandma on 06/05/2024 - 12:37

                @mdsl32: We'll get there when we get there!

                (But the good news is these are premium laptops and we live in a country where premium laptops should last for 4 or more years!) So… sorta a get out of jail free card?

    • chiwilad on 04/05/2024 - 21:42
      +1

      I would actually get the M2 Air for only $69 more, it is on sale at the moment.
      https://www.pbtech.co.nz/product/NBKAPP213225611/Apple-MacBo…

      Ableton Live is compatible with macOS, providing a seamless experience for Mac users. Additionally, you can explore Apple Logic Pro as an alternative if you're inclined. The MacBook Air boasts a fanless design, offering a quieter environment compared to the often noisy fans in Windows laptops.

      Speaking of displays, Apple sets the bar high in my opinion. If you prioritise quality visuals, a Mac might be your best bet. Consider whether reliability and outstanding battery life are key factors for your creative endeavors.

      Once you've experienced using a Mac, you won't want to go back to Windows :)

      • Grandma on 05/05/2024 - 13:55

        Damn, that's a great price.

        Paid $1200 for mine used and it doesn't blow the pants off of my m1 macbook air (which went to the ex, sigh). but it's plonked in front of a 32" 4k monitor and… you can just tell that apple go hard on displays. I don't care too much about high fps (on my laptop anyway).

        There's some issues with the computers though. Single secondary display out only (except with displaylink, which has overhead and limits you to 1080p outs afaik). There's only USB-C (but that's been the case since 2016) and you have to be particularly selective about what docks you can use

        • chiwilad on 05/05/2024 - 14:07

          M3 supports for up to two external displays with laptop lid closed aka the clamshell mode.

    • NovaAlpha on 06/05/2024 - 11:26

      While I do agree the M1/M2/M3 chips are good, it really depends on the user requirement and use cases.

      There're a lot of apps that aren't supported on MacOS. If you're a power user trying to do a bunch of automations using e.g. Autohotkey or whatever on your PC, then you'd need to go with Windows. Driver support for games tend to be a lot better on Windows as well.

      If you're running custom OS on Windows, then RAM isn't even an issue at that point. The custom OS that I created myself is crazy fast. Cold boot takes literally a second and it'll show the lockscreen. Everything is fast and optimized. If I need to restore my entire system from backup, it'll take literally 3 minutes, not exaggerating. I'm a Windows and Linux user and so naturally I'm comfortable with these systems and I think most people would be comfortable with Windows as well, especially if they've been given a Windows work laptop.

      The prob with Mac products is they are hard to repair yourself, since they are either soldered or that Apple makes it very difficult for you to even replace like for like parts. I remember watching a video of some guy swapping the components of a brand new iPhone with another brand new iPhone and the camera wouldn't work. Look up Louis Rossmann's videos on Youtube. He specializes in Mac repairs (among other repairs) and he always talks negatively about how Apple is anti-consumer, etc. You simply simply replace a lot of components easily on Mac products in general.

      Besides, you can get a very decent gaming PC for much less. This is around $880 NZD:
      https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?app=chrome&bxsign=scdMWZs17…

      • Grandma on 06/05/2024 - 12:33

        I wouldn't pay $900 for a computer form taobao. The warranty trade off for something like that isn't great, from my perspective anyway, having sold a lot of shit plastic gaming laptops back when.

        99% of people just use chrome and 365 and maybe spotify. & for others I don't imagine many people would bother with using a distro other than ubuntu or mint or whatever flavour has good support. From a security and driver POV, from the very least, packaging your own linux distro is probably not worth the effort.

        Im kinda happy with the repairability tradeoff tbh. Macs are single board computers, they're effectively 4 parts. The displays are stupid expensive to replace, but very very pretty to look at.

        & average people are shockingly unaware of their computers too. We recently popped an office at a school over to our windows 11 image. (well, about a year ago) and after the staff noticed, we got calls and complaints about changes that we had made to other staff's laptops .. who hadn't had the upgrade asking us to put them back on win10.

        • NovaAlpha on 06/05/2024 - 13:14

          I personally think warranty is pointless when it comes to tech. I've purchased many expensive things from Taobao, Aliexpress, Temu, Ebay and never once had to claim warranty. In fact, I've never really claimed warranty ever in my life. Maybe it's because I take good care of my things, but in general tech products don't really break. I still have 4~5 old laptops from 5~10 years ago that still function well, including 5 spare Android phones purchased throughout the years.

          And if people are purchasing 2nd hand items from Trademe or Facebook Marketplace, then warranty is irrelevant anyway. I'd rather pay $900 for a brand new gaming laptop with very decent specs, than to pay $1400 for a used Macbook.

          And if people are using just a few basic apps, then why bother with paying so much more? I don't think the average user would even care or notice the difference between a 120/144hz screen compared to a standard one. My GF's recent laptop purchase is a Lenovo Legion gaming laptop. It's used, but the specs are quite good and it was for $699. The screen looks great, everything works great, runs really smooth and is more than fast enough for 99% of the users out there.

          And she can always spend another $699 to buy another 2nd hand laptop with even beefier specs later on (assuming that's even required at that point). Whereas with a $1400 purchase, you'd be stuck with it for a while before you can justify upgrading again. Tech refreshes so quickly that your device would already become obsolete within 6 months ~ 1 year - which is another reason why I think warranty is pointless. For example, I recently bought the OnePlus 12R for $530 NZD and this has equivalent specs to the OnePlus 11 flagship that came out last year for around $1200 NZD. By next year, I can upgrade again and would have still paid less than the guy who bought a OnePlus 11 for $1200. At that point, the standard 1 year warranty doesn't even matter, because I'd be on a new phone anyway.

          • Alan6984 on 06/05/2024 - 13:43

            @NovaAlpha: I completely agree about warranties on tech products.

            Pretty sure (memory might fail me though) the only warranties that I have claimed have been for HDDs that were DoA (and those weren't for me / us, they were for clients who insisted and were happy to pay our time to process a claim which means it still cost them!) and maybe a used laptop, but that would have been at least ten years ago, and probably more like fifteen.

            As an aside, I don't recall getting an SSD that was DoA ever, but that makes sense to me, as I imagine most HDDs were shock damage in transit, whereas an SSD with no moving parts is presumably much harder to kill like that.

            Phones are fairly unlikely to take damage in transit - maybe a screen, but that should be mitigated by good packaging.

            Laptops are similar to phones nowadays, with SSDs and hardly any moving parts (fan perhaps, but that it likely quite resilient) - I haven't had a laptop arrive in anything other than perfect working order for ages, including second-hand / ex-lease machines.

            The advantage of buying 'cheaper' and more often is something I have posted here before. Not only do you end up averaging or bettering the technical specs, you also have far less capital invested ongoing (half is often a good bet), plus you can often on-sell again for a reasonable percentage of what you bought for given you avoid the 'new' premium.

          • Grandma on 06/05/2024 - 18:39

            @NovaAlpha: In another life i did warranty claims at noel leeming and I've been an onsite repair agent for one of the big laptop brands that sells (or dumps) into nz. So I've seen a lot I guess and I definitely dont have faith in creaky plastic computers.

  • Huntakillaz on 01/05/2024 - 12:15

    You'd want 16GB ram at least (for windows especially) often budget-midrange end laptops come with soldered ram to cut cost and upgrading it may not be an option

  • MightyMoose on 01/05/2024 - 12:20

    Lenovo have mother's day deals going right now, check out their gaming offerings too, if you can see past the gamer styling they offer good performance for the money, Ive run a Legion 5 Pro for a few years now and it's been rock solid.

    • Dunno on 01/05/2024 - 14:32

      I guess you got an Intel SKU, my AMD Legion 5 was a terrible experience

      • NovaAlpha on 02/05/2024 - 17:21

        What's terrible about it? Thought AMD CPUs were doing really well and getting a lot of love from the enthusiasts

        • Dunno on 02/05/2024 - 18:54

          Not the CPU itself but just for some reason the AMD SKU has a known sound sync issue where the audio slowly drifts out of sync by about 150-300ms and requires a reset to fix it for a short period. It's not the windows install or anything, fresh non lenovo image has the same fault and people had to return them because Lenovo couldn't offer a fix.

          • NovaAlpha on 02/05/2024 - 20:27

            @Dunno: Mind sharing an article to this? Quite curious about it.

            I've used Lenovo laptops in the past and never had this issue. One of the laptops that I daily is a Lenovo with a AMD SKU and it's fine too. Love it to bits. It's funny because I used to hate Lenovo laptops, but they've gotten a lot better over the years.

            I'm running a heavily modified custom Windows OS that I tweaked myself though, so maybe I'm not running into issues that others have.

    • L3tstaxth1s on 02/05/2024 - 18:08

      Examples? I couldnt see any obvious ones on their website

  • Alan6984 on 01/05/2024 - 22:07

    Not a recommendation, but worth looking at for comparison purposes at least:

    https://www.cheapies.nz/node/46400

  • nachos on 02/05/2024 - 09:14

    check out amazon.com.au too (or possibly amazon.com) as occasionally there is good deals there.

    you can save a bit of money if you dont mind the risk/hassle if you need to return.

    2023 - Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 14IRH8, 14" FHD, 512GB/16GB RAM, Intel Core i7-13620H, Arctic Grey
    $1180.91 AUD + $322.54 AUD import tax, free delivery = $1503.45 AUD
    https://www.amazon.com.au/2023-Lenovo-IdeaPad-14IRH8-i7-1362…?

    MSI Prestige 14H B12UCX-445AU 14-Inch Intel i7-12650H NVIDIA RTX 2050 16GB LPDDR5 RAM 512GB SSD Business and Productivity Laptop, Urban Silver
    $1167.06 AUD + $312.05 AUD import tax, $18.50 AUD delivery = $1497.61 AUD
    https://www.amazon.com.au/MSI-Prestige-14H-B12UCX-445AU-14-I…?

  • spren on 02/05/2024 - 09:21

    Brand new Lenovo X1 Yoga Gen7s have been selling on TradeMe for between $1.1k and $1.2k as of late - I've bought three for various people. Apart from one that came pre-provisioned by MYOB and that I had to reset, they've been flawless.

    They're probably the best value for money you could hope to get in the price bracket (with the M1 Air a decent second option), unless for some reason you want a dedicated GPU. They're much better than all the mid-range or budget offerings suggested so far in this thread (build quality, battery life, form factor, touchscreen, Wacom stylus) and all come with 32GB/512GB.

    Here's a link to one currently running:
    https://www.trademe.co.nz/a/marketplace/computers/laptops/la…

    • Bill on 02/05/2024 - 10:40

      I believe that was something I originally posted in the Low Quantity Thread.

      • spren on 02/05/2024 - 11:13

        yeah that's probably how I found out about it lmao

        • ace310 on 02/05/2024 - 12:05

          Price seems insane. Stolen?

          • spren on 02/05/2024 - 23:41

            @ace310: No, there's been tons of units so I'm guessing MYOB was gearing up for a big hiring round and then decided not to hire anyone (or laid off a bunch of people or whatever) and so they just had to dump a lot of units (hence why one was still provisioned).

            • Bill on 04/05/2024 - 16:55

              @spren: What prices have you bought your ones for? I didn't buy any when I posted it, but I'm wondering if the prices got any lower.

              • spren on 04/05/2024 - 21:51
                +1

                @Bill: Two for 1.1, one for 1.2

  • Avantime on 02/05/2024 - 12:17

    Maybe a used gaming laptop?

  • NovaAlpha on 05/05/2024 - 12:40

    My GF just bought a Lenovo Legion laptop with decent specs for $699 on FB Marketplace. Yes it's not the safest of places to buy from, but I've had pretty decent purchases there. There are quite a lot of 2nd hand gaming laptops on there for cheap prices.

    Alternatively, you can also buy from Taobao, AMD R7-5800H CPU, RTX3060, 16GB RAM for around $1130 NZD:

    https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?ali_trackid=2:mm_1544500114…

    I've purchased from Taobao a few times and the items are genuine and new. They also come with extra stuff sometimes, like for example my tablet came with screen protector, case and even a tablet foldable stand. Haven't had issues with them at all.

    The checkout includes the GST for import tax, so you don't need to pay anything extra once it arrives in NZ customs. For shipping, you can only do combined shipping, not direct shipping. Combined shipping means that your purchase will be shipped with orders placed by others, so that they can all be shipped out in one go, which makes it economical for them. Shipping cost is really cheap, about $10~$15 or so. GST is about an extra $80 or so. So if the item you're looking at is $1000 NZD, you'd be looking at a total of around $1120 NZD, which is still much cheaper than buying elsewhere.

    A Oneplus 12R costs around $1000 and I got it for $530. A Lenovo Pad Pro 2023 12.7' costs like $700 or something at PBTech and I got it for $400.

    • Alan6984 on 05/05/2024 - 12:44

      Interesting how Taobao are getting $80 of GST on $1,000 of goods, but as long as it works for you in terms of coming through customs, then I guess that's what matters :-)

    • NovaAlpha on 05/05/2024 - 13:45

      Or even this one, around $880 for a 16GB, RTX3050, R5-5600H:
      https://item.taobao.com/item.htm?app=chrome&bxsign=scdMWZs17…

      • Adabesi on 06/05/2024 - 09:10

        Hi Nova, presuming you are Chinese? Trying to use google translate, just setting up an account is a minefield ha. Looks like pretty awesome deals though damn it!

        • Alan6984 on 06/05/2024 - 09:52

          Trying to use google translate, just setting up an account is a minefield ha. Looks like pretty awesome deals though damn it!

          Does this work? I haven't actually used Taobao so I can't be sure that it stays in English, makes sense throughout, or has the same deals!

          https://www.taobao.com/markets/gmall/

          Also, that part of the website might be for vendors, rather than purchasers?

          I might be wrong, but I thought that Taobao and Alibaba are the same overall business, so maybe try AliExpress instead? Again, not sure if the prices are the same or not.

          • NovaAlpha on 06/05/2024 - 10:49

            @Alan6984: Not the same business and prices are way more expensive on AliExpress than Taobao.

            • Alan6984 on 06/05/2024 - 12:04

              @NovaAlpha:

              Not the same business

              Okay - Fail on my part, as I thought they were part of the same group.

        • NovaAlpha on 06/05/2024 - 10:51

          I'm not Chinese but I can read Chinese.

          I might create a guide on how to buy stuff from Taobao when I get some time later.

      • Dunno on 06/05/2024 - 12:19

        how many nits is the screen?

  • desikiwi on 06/05/2024 - 06:03

    Apple m1 air 1500 on student deal with free airpods at start of th year or 600 to 1000 you should get near new from fb marketplace

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